Graduate Prospectus

Mental Illness

Friday May 31st 2013

The forum explored the topic of mental illness from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In particular, participants looked at varying representations of mental illness in Psychology, History, Literature and Art.

As part of the discussion they explored the development of the concept of madness, representations of mental illness in antiquity, the role of repressed instincts and desires in causing or constituting mental illness and the connection between mental illness and artistic creativity.

The Prinzhorn Collection consists of paintings from the psychiatric patients of the German psychologist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn.

Many of these patients, whose illnesses included schizophrenia and manic depression, produced unsettling images through which, it seems we witness the products of a process of exercising internal demons.

The collection offered some insight into the mind of the mentally ill and it prompted questions about the relationship between mental illness and creativity as well as questions on the role of art as a therapeutic tool.